Qa'yol also known as Awakatek, is a Mayan language spoken in primarily Huehuetenango,
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
in and around
AguacatánAguacatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 1670m above sea level. It has a population of 41,000. It covers a terrain of 300km2.-Geography:...
. It is a living language with some 18,000 speakers.
Awakatek is closely related to Ixil and the two languages together form the sub-branch Ixilean, which together with the Mamean languages,
MamMam is a Mayan language with almost 480,000 speakers as of 2002, spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango and San Marcos....
and
TektitekThe Tektitek language is a member of the Quichean–Mamean branch of the Mayan language family. It is very closely related to the Mam language. Tektikek is spoken by the Tektitek people, which are primarily settled in the municipality of Tectitán, department of Huehuetenango. A number of Tektitek...
, form a sub-branch Greater-Mamean, which again, together with the Greater-Quichean languages, ten Mayan languages, including
K'iche'The K’iche’ language is a part of the Mayan language family. It is spoken by many K'iche' people in the central highlands of Guatemala. With close to a million speakers , it is the second-most widely spoken language in the country after Spanish...
, form the branch Quichean–Mamean.
The
Awakatek peopleThe Awakatek are a Maya people in Guatemala, primarily located in the municipality of Aguacatán . Their native language is also called Awakatek and is related to the Ixil language.-References:...
themselves refer to their language as
qa'yol, literally meaning
our word.